Lieutenant Ball watched as two groups of AEUG MS continued to maneuver ahead of their units, one directly in front of the Bindra team, another off to their right more in the area of the Peoron team. The Bindra would be getting close to firing range, not that Ball had the confidence in Wald to expect them to do much, but the AEUG teams were close enough they could act.

“We’re intercepting those AEUG. Baromsky and Nachtjaeger hang back and cover the ships, but move up if things start looking bad. Everyone else, we’ll swing left and try and push the first team towards the other unit that’s about to contact the Peoron team,” Ball ordered and transformed to MA mode, kicking his thrusters to full speed to try and take advantage of the AEUG team, which didn’t appear to be in any kind of attack formation.

================================================================

-Trammel Team-

The Trammel team raced in, all in mobile armor mode. There were two non-standard Titan MS ahead of them, some variants on the not all that common Barzam, which had the team leader, Lt. Kohlhausen, more than a little concerned. That worry grew when they opened fire with several bursts of machine gun fire that, while not scoring any hits, rattled a few of his pilots.

“Spread out but keep pressing, let’s get them and then head for the ships,” He ordered, keeping his voice as even as possible. The Gaza-C’s loosened their formation, with Kohlhausen still in the center of it and his team spread around him with the two survivors from the other ships, Emmers and Lebim, on the left and right edges of the group. Three of the group opened fire, sending a half dozen badly aimed, long distance shots in the direction of the Titans.

eyes widening at the realization that he had gotten the Kalinin's attention, Trask juked hard to the right, ejecting a fuel binder in the process

"too close.." he muttered to himself as the salvo vaporized the binder, "must've gotten spotting assistance or something, well they had to use their brains sooner or later, I'll let them think they got me for now."

the radio crackled to life "***brrrzztt*riendlies, nemo***hzzzkkkt***erde and hambu****kkkztzzz***"

before he could ask Griff for a repeat of the last message he saw that wales' dias had begun accelerating, the hell does that moron think he's doing? he thought as he noticed that team alphas M-156's were preparing to attack

"all units brace yourselves..." he ordered, trying to conceal the fear in his voice "this is gonna hurt.."

--

Sorry Trask but there is only one way to win at chicken, and that is to demonstrate your commitment to the other guy by showing him you've removed your steering wheel.

with that in mind, Wales charged headlong into the Buxuro team, ploughing through the centre of their formation while making one wild swing with his beam sabre, as he continued past the Marasai's he turned to fire off a couple of unaimed parting shots before sweeping left in a wide arc, noting that he was looking at the flank of the ship Trask was harassing earlier.

Something drew Irene attention to the left side of her panoramic display and not a moment too soon for fireworks display courtesy of a nearby Titan ship against a MS nearby. 'It’s Trask’s!' Before she could give more thought about it…

WHAM!

Like having been kicked from behind dizziness struck her for a moment, the cockpit vibrated violently with flickered screens in the background. Not waiting for anything, she pushed her throttle and fired back in anger against the chasing Marasai that just scored a hit to her Dias rear skirt. In the process Griff message was lost completely to static, however Trask’s punched through, “all bzz* brace your#..zingg… zx .. is gonna hurt…zz"

What? Where? She visually seek for his CO but things going pretty hard with the Marasai on her tail. Instead of Trask, the screen showed Wales’ Dias charging head first against an enemy formation.

“Wales, you sick bastard!” She yelled out in frustration. Another beam bolt passed her Dias left side narrowly.

I can’t... not like this!

Like a flip switch Irene made her resolve, tuned her mind and fixed her focus to the Marasai chasing her. She evaded several shots while steadily lowering her engine output, trying to get a closer range to deal an accurate counterattack. Bravely she maintained her cool which each shot becoming more and more deadly.

Finally it hit 379m range mark. Delicately she evaded the last beam shot with minimum sideways move before making a 180 aileron roll. From that position she could muster all her main thrusters to negate her speed, bringing the Dias almost dead stop while facing the chaser. The Marasai's last shot already gained too much accuracy to her liking but now it didn't matter to her anymore. With or without optics feed by camera and edited display, her vision formed like a tunnel to the target, a paused heartbeat and then she squeezed the trigger in a gently but mechanical finger movement the same moment she exhaled. Fumes from the verniers working hard still hazed around when the two bolts escaped from her beam rifle. She double tap the Marasai on 152m.

The chaser kept his speed and only got split second to decide where to evade but the Marasai's pilot hesitated whether to shot or to maneuver. Finally he realized that whatever he had in mind it’s too late. The shots were surprisingly accurate leaving slim error margin to evade. "How could this be, I’m the one ch…” he panicked. The suit moved sideways but not before getting hit twice in the left chest and shoulder. The mark of the heart. What's left from the Marasai passed Irene's Dias before the upper part bursting open in flame, spiraling still in high speed.

Jacob gasped as he saw a small explosion by one of the Dervish’s catapults, his Kanone Dias still on its way to making a landing. As the pink smoke cleared, it seemed there was no considerable damage done to the ship or the catapult deck. So one of ours bought it...damn! He spotted that Gaza-C flying around within the 4th’s perimeter and smirked as he quickly took aim. A pair of shots from the beam cannons burped out, streaking towards the buzzing mech until they struck near-dead center, blowing it apart in a rapidly dissipating streak of pink smoke.

"There’s one less Zeke to worry about!" Despite his enthusiasm, Jacob remembered he was still low on power and supplies and needed to make a landing, so he maintained course for the Dervish. Passing by the deploying Team 2 as he moved in, his Kanone Dias was the first to land on the deck; the mech slowly floating into one of the berths as the Chief’s crew quickly began swarming the mobile suit. For a while, at least, he could breathe easy and not worry about getting shot at. And once I head back out...you are mine, blue mobile suit. No matter what it takes, you die.

------------

-Buxoro Team

God...will this ever end? That had been Elijah’s primary train of thought these past twenty-four hours, though to him, it felt more like seventy-two taking into account fatigue, blood pressure and how pissed off he was at the sheer attrition. "Soon enough we’ll be reduced to arming our suits with rocks and sticks..." He muttered out as he heard Tim call out the lone incoming Rick Dias, moving to engage without proper orders. Elijah’s leg twitched briefly as he shook his head.

What’s the point in giving orders? Between Axis and the AEUG, we’re cornered. Might as well cut loose for once. With that point in mind, he nevertheless didn’t want his team to get splintered at this point. "August, back Tim up on that Rick Dias. Vlad, keep on my right. We hold the line here! Anyone tries to get through, we push ‘em back or blow ‘em up!"

"That's the problem with plutonium, Craven; it's limited in its application. It's not user-friendly. But as a vehicle for regaining one's self-respect; oh, it's got a lot going for it!"
- Darius Jedburgh, Edge of Darkness, Episode 6, Fusion

The New Yark team reformed to press forward, with Hard AE continuing to lead feet-first while Bort and Thibaut hanging back somewhat to allow them to better use their 240mm cannons on the Hizacks that were moving in a roughly similar triangle formation, trying to protect on of the Titan Salamis Kais.

“Now~!” Ramon hooted over the radio as he shifted upwards to avoid some more machine gun fire and responded by spraying his beam rifle as fast as he could pull the trigger, sending nine beams lancing out toward the Hizacks. Behind him, Bort and Thibaut each began firing their cannons, aiming both at the Hizacks, but at the warships they were trying to protect.

Bate watched as the beams from the Kalinin lanced out into the middle of what was turning into another dogfight, but they were too distant for Bate to tell what was going on, aside from a rather obvious explosion that was clearly a mobile suit being destroyed…

But that didn’t appear to matter to Nguyen back on the bridge. The Kalinin opened fire on the same general area again, this time a more sustained barrage lasting a good ten seconds by Bate’s count…

================================================================

-Nunavut Team-

They were still backing up when the team of Nemos began boring in once again, one spraying beam fire while the other two opened fire with some other weapon.

“What the hell are those?” Faisal wondered aloud as a large shell narrowly missed his Hizack, sparing a quick glance at his sensors. The lead machine was clearly a standard Nemo, he’d been close enough to be sure of that, although the pilot had been doing some very unusual things, but the other two were still too distant for a solid confirmation.

A string of flashes from behind made Faisal lean half out of his seat and look back. Akizawa’s Hizack was now just an upper torso, clearly dead, and the Nunavut itself had fire billowing out from somewhere on the bridge tower, blocking view of the bridge itself.

If it’s even still there… Faisal thought and turned back toward the incoming AEUG unit, letting out a long burst directed at the two more distant Nemo-whatever-they-were, while Babineaux concentrated her fire on the regular Nemo as they both continued to back up toward the Nunavut, hoping that it’s guns would be able to provide some covering fire.

The amount of machine gune fire that came from that one Barzam turned Emmers whiter than he already was. "What's it carrying?" he panicked as he spread himself from the group farther left while still managing to get two shots at the Barzam variant.

================================================================

-Iota Team-

Seeing Buxoro team in the thick of it, he banked wide right just outside of Alpha team and opened up his comm. "Buxoro, fall back and resupply. We'll cover your withdrawal." Instantly his sensors picked up a brief lock, Grant fired two shots at Irene's Dias.

Jason took Grant's lead and banked wide left, unable to attain a lock he fired a group of shots at Wales' Dias who had his focus at a Salamis.

================================================================

- Gryps 2 Space -
- Team 2 -

Bernard's B-Type arrived off of Hard AE's right firing two shots at Faisal's Hizack while keeping an eye at Babineaux's position. An indicator light informed Bernard that his left hip missile launcher was armed.

Bernard said something that was lost in the Minovsky-caused static as they approached the New Yark team, still in the midst of fighting. And Eddie judged that they weren’t doing too bad, given the series of explosions ahead of them, including hits on the nearest Titan Salamis Kai.

Bernard opened fire on the pair of retreating Hizacks, and Eddie shifted closer to Sophie’s C-Type has they moved in, hoping she’d be able to get in some shots on the warship.

================================================================

-New Yark Team-

Pushing in behind Hard AE, Bort and Thibaut had a fairly clear view as his fire nailed one Hizack, and several of their shells hit the Salamis Kai, although they were still too distant for a clear damage assessment.

But then the streams of 120mm machinegun fire from the remaining pair of Hizacks swept over them. All three New Yark machines brought their shields up to protect the vital areas of their mobile suits and went evasive.

Thibaut felt his Nemo Cannon shudder and several screens on the right side of his cockpit turned to static as damage alarms went off with accompanying flashing lights. A diagnostic of his suit appeared on one screen, showing the right arm had been blown off just below the shoulder.

Bort’s Nemo Cannon filled the left side of his screen, “You okay?”

“Yeah, but I lost my rifle-wait,” He said, trying to scan over the problems affecting his mobile suit, still keep an eye on things ahead of them, and bring the suit to a stop as his next course of action became clear. “The 240’s got something wrong in fire control. I’m going to head back.”

“We won’t be too far behind you!” Bort’s Nemo Cannon pointed with its shield behind them where a trio of Rick Dias were quickly approaching. Chareux didn’t hesitate to start back towards the distant 4th, giving the Rick Dias team a wave of recognition from the shielded and intact left arm of his MS, while Bort went in the opposite direction, charging after Ramon, who was still aggressively pursuing the Hizacks, firing away with his beam rifle.

“Crap, more of them...” Faisal grunted as several more AEUG suits, which his sensors pegged as likely Rick Dias-types, came in, with a pair of beams coming from their area, while that pesky Nemo continued to fire away at both him and Babineaux as they fell back toward their ship.

One beam, he wasn’t sure from which, burned the left foot off his Hizack and caused it to tumble somewhat. Panicked, Faisal held down the trigger and sent dozens of 120mm shells out in what he thought was the direction of the various AEUG units nearby.

An alarm sounded and there was a massive flash as a beam sailed off to his left. For a heartbeat, he thought it was the AEUG, until he saw the beam heading towards them. A glance to his rear monitor showed two things. One was Babineaux, still backing up and firing short, controlled bursts at the newly arriving Rick Dias group.

The other was the Nunavut, her main guns sending a quick barrage out, followed a moment later by a ripple of missiles launching. The sight brought a smile to Faisal’s face, even though his trained eye told him the missiles would probably miss low and the AEUG units still had more than enough distance to make avoiding the beams not too difficult, the fact that the Nunavut could still fight was enough.

The fighting in front of them seemed to intensify, with the Nunavut taking several hits before finally waking up and opening fire with its main guns and letting off a quick missile barrage. There were more units closing in, but Wolf wasn’t concerned with another AEUG unit moving in.

“Spray some fire but keep moving,” Wolf told the rest of the team tersely, quickly spraying the five rockets in his clip in the general direction of the lead pair of AEUG Nemos before swinging his Barzam hard to the right, where it looked like more mobile suits might be engaged. Sven similarly fired his bazooka at a more distant group of Rick Dias, while Daren refrained from firing, both following Wolf’s maneuver, with Sunoue’s Hizack doing the same some distance behind them.

================================================================

-Gamma Team-

The handful of potshots from the Axis unit hardly registered on Nick as he passed above the Herakles team, not paying attention to their actions or that of Faraday. He angled off to pass behind the damaged Kalinin, which is where he had been before. Even if he wasn’t there now, it was as good a place to start as any…

================================================================

-Delta Team-

“Whoa…” Leandro let out as they were behind the Nunavut. Off to their right the Salamis Kai had taken a hit, but it was the distinctive flash of a mobile suit reactor exploding in front of him, from the area where the Luzon was, that prompted his reaction.

Leandro slowed down and let his radome start searching the area, which did little to help, so quick were the MS moving and in such close proximity they were. He caught a glimpse of a Rick Dias and a Barzam coming together and exchanging slashes from their beam sabers, only to break apart almost as quickly, the former firing a blast from its phalanx guns that might have landed but failed any obvious damage.

His targeting scope picked up something else, causing him to shift slightly more as his suit came to a halt well behind the Luzon. Leandro quickly spotted the large formation of Gaza-C’s heading right into the Luzon’s sector.

“Here we go, Kyle. Let’s work on that Gaza group,” He said, raising his beam launcher and reading off some targeting coordinates to Roberts, just in case he hadn’t spotted the Gaza’s as well, and then sending a single massive beam out toward the distant Axis units.

================================================================

-The Luzon-
-Bridge-

Esfahani was still at the front of the bridge with his binoculars, trying to keep track of the chaos unfolding along the port side of his battered cruiser. Team 1’s Barzams had engaged a quintet of Rick Dias that had charged in with bravado, and almost instantly their interception plan had fallen apart into utter chaos. Reports were coming in that the Nunavut was being attacked and had been hit, but for the time being they would have to handle their sector on their own..

One of the red AEUG machines swooped in low with a Barzam in pursuit, trying to make another pass on the Salamis Kai, whose anti-air batteries fired low, not wanting to risk the friendly fire. The Eye-Zack, practically standing on the catapult, put in several bursts from its 120mm machine gun, and there was a flash from the enemy suit that looked like a hit and obscured the view for those on the ship.

Esfahani nearly grinned, but that died as he saw the Rick Dias, now less a fuel binder, abort its run on the ship by corkscrewing up and away. The Barzam, having lost track of the Dias momentarily, was slow to react, and the AEUG suit fired three quick shots from one of its beam pistols, two of which hit the Barzam squarely and catastrophically, causing the reactor to cook off and everyone on the bridge to flinch. Esfahani silently cursed and watched the Rick Dias rocket back toward the center for the dogfight, fire from the Eye-Zack and Magedova’s Hizack Custom chasing it away. “Who was that?”

“I think Szarka, sir…” The gunnery officer sighed.

Esfahani merely nodded as the prolonged flash of beam sabers came from several of the suits out there, and then suddenly, a large beam passed over their ship and rocketed out into the distance. “What the hell is that?!” Esfahani snapped.

Sensors turned around, his face bright red. “Friendlies, sir, from the Kirov,” The young man’s voice was a mixture of worry and relief, “Two of them. They just showed up.”

Esfahani briefly considered wondering why the Eye-Zack had not told them. Given how porous the Titan lines had been, just because the MS were coming from behind didn’t mean they were friendlies. But, they had been clear for the last few minutes, and the Eye-Zack was busy trying to keep itself, and the ship, alive…

He turned to the gunnery officer, “Are those Gaza’s in range yet?”

“Within ninety seconds, but only one of the rear main guns has an angle,” the officer replied as he looked down at a readout.

There was no hesitation from the Lieutenant Commander. “Helm, bring us around to face the incoming. Comm, tell the Eye-Zack to move and keep his damn eyes open!” Esfahani grumbled as the ship began the struggle to rotate properly. It might take all of those ninety seconds, but the Luzon would have most of its firepower ready to react.

"wow, these guys are practically half asleep" Wales muttered as he glanced back at the rather sluggish Buxuro team, which looked completely unaware that he had already passed them, before sizing up the Kalinin as it fired off a sustained barrage to the point that he almost missed the beams heading straight for him fortunately they went wide of their mark, cursing himself for not paying more attention he switched his beam pistol for the bazooka and started his run, weaving between various large chunks of debris in order to mask his approach

reaching a rather large piece, Wales stopped to check his surroundings one more time, noting a group of barzams moving to cover the rear of the ship, grimacing he looked back to friendly lines and his eyes widened as he saw that Irene's dias was trying to reach him.

"F***...nonononono, this is not part of the plan" cursing his luck, Wales shook his head "too late to stop now, focus on gutting that ship like a fish" committed, he shot out from his hiding place and flew under the Kalinin, firing off three bazooka rounds at its exposed underside before sweeping upwards along its starboard side coming level with the bridge tower where the one of the starboard guns had been taken out, with a yell he brought the beam sabre back in preparation to strike.

--

feeling caged in by the second barrage, Trask was near breaking point when he saw that Irene was now breaking formation, and another group of titans suits had decided to join the party, the only good grace was that the four reinforcing Nemos from the Hamburg and Victoria were now laying down their own salvo of covering fire in the direction of said titans suits with Griff acting as overwatch, waiting for a good moment to fire off the rockets he had left.

a sudden flash of colour got his attention and he instinctively brought his beam sabre up to deflect, locking blades with a griffin, its eyes flashing a baleful green that reflected off of the pink and yellow highlights that had been added to the suit. Trask pushed back with the might his kanone dias had, struggling to maintain a stationary position against such a monster.

--

-the Dervish-
-Hangar-

"bout time you got back, Fritz and the others had just arrived" Celeste hissed in frustration as Celeine came into view from around the corner, Jacobs kanone had just landed for resupply, their last window of opportunity was closing fast, and she'll be damned if she wasn't going to get through to nick.

seeing an opening and capitalising on this, Celeste kicked herself off of the adjacent wall and quickly darted into the hangar, going behind her own mobile suit and quickly diving into the cockpit while everyone was distracted, a few minutes later Celeine followed suite, shutting the hatch behind her.

"ok, we'll start up the suit when they're about to launch, if need be we'll avoid using the catapult if they catch on, you ready?"

Two shots came from Irene's left side, hinted that another team have entered the fray. That caused more concern and worse there's no time to warn her allies. Having speed as the advantage she tried to evade the shots by accelerating into max limit for few seconds and banking slightly to the right. That led her straight into the Buxoro Team that guarded an imaginary line over the horizon. The shots flew harmlessly in the background while she maintained her course and speed.

Should I reconsider? After all, the usual tactic of returning back and try again is the best option…

“Hell NO!” she answered with determination. In a leap of faith that her luck won’t just end like that, Irene's Rick Dias dashed Gerinomo!-style headfirst into the imaginary line. Getting some sprays from the surprised August whose Marasai almost collide by a margin of dozen meters left. The Titan pilot's panic shot sprayed at random anywhere near but the AEUG machine. Having made a high speed pass against previous Marasai, Irene ended up against the unsuspecting Timothy. The latter one seemed too busy to pick aim elsewhere and she wasted no time to pull the trigger once the targeting bracket gave a solid lock. She double tapped her beam gun, targeting Tim’s backpack.

“More Titan MS Team closing-in from the left... and WALES, you better be alive when I asked explanation for this!” She shouted into the radio, readying his Bazooka that ran on its last spare clip against the Salamis.

“Pull back,” Nick's voice barely came through as Aaron prepped to exchange more fire with the oncoming Axis units. Taking off after him just as the stream of beam fire came towards them, he couldn't help but feel something was odd about Nick's order. Then again it was Nick Te'litha so odd was normal for him.

As they approached the damaged Kalinin he couldn't hold back, “Lt., what's our plan here? Are we assisting another unit?”

- Buxoro Team -

Tim pushed his Marasai to catch up to Wales' Rick Dias as it began its attack on the Kalinin. He wasn't fast enough to prevent a large amount of damage but he caught up as the Rick Dias brought the beam saber back in preparation to strike. With his own beam saber drawn in its left hand he lined up the spiked shoulder and braced for impact as he got ready for the shock that a shoulder charge at high speed.

- Bindra Team -

“We’re intercepting those AEUG. Baromsky and Nachtjaeger hang back and cover the ships, but move up if things start looking bad. Everyone else, we’ll swing left and try and push the first team towards the other unit that’s about to contact the Peoron team,” Lt. Ball finally ordered.

“Copy that!” Nikolai followed his leaders well, lead and transformed his Gaza-C into MA mode. As they approached the Hamburg Team he let loose a few blasts from his small beam guns, hoping to help in Lt. Ball's plan.

- Team 2 -

The Nunavut loomed damaged in the distance. Sophie's Rick Dias C-type sensors adjusted and began to compensate so that the shell firing cannon would hopefully score a hit. With everything flying around now though she wasn't so sure how likely a direct hit would be.

“Might as well try,” she muttered as the cannon barked twice sending explosive shells screaming towards the Nunavut.

"Copy." Pris confirmed and reluctantly pushed her Gaza-C into MA mode. Vhen this ower I vant something much better than scrap! Scowling to herself. Maybe--finally--Rick Dias? Or better thahn that!

She rolled the machine left and throttled after Ball to assist in bunching two AEUG teams into a crossfire. "Perhaps ve keep some for the Titan beast? Canon fodder to vear it down then ve place it on a pike?" Clutching her controls and a held back shudder at the memory of the last time her team met the Titan mobile suit that was tearing through both theirs and the AUEG forces.

Fritz drummed his fingers at a rapid staccato on the doorframe of the small standby room connected to the main hangar. It was a break room of sorts normally used by the mechanics and other crew, but it had a vending machine and semi-comfortable seats so it was a good enough a place as any for pilots to cool their heels between sorties. On the way in he had bummed a smoke from a young grease monkey without even thinking about it, and now he rolled it between his thumb and forefinger. Looking down at the unlit cigarette he briefly thought about lighting up considering the situation, but ended up tucking it behind one ear and focusing his attention on the waiting.

His head and side ached. On the busy work floor outside he could see Celeste still near the foot of her Rick Dias speaking to somebody buttoned up in a normal suit, but he couldn't tell who. Michiko had ventured elsewhere for something more filling than a can of soda, leaving him alone with Jacob who was busy taking angry pulls from a can of some kind of (wholesale, off-brand, terrifyingly low-ABV) light beer from the same machine Michi had found lacking. Fritz decided it wasn't worth fighting about.

One of Sager's workhorses popped his head into the room and nodded at Fritz, “Eight to ten, sir. You guys were doing a lot of shooting.”

Fritz stopped drumming and rested his hands on his hips. “Who isn't?”

- Luna -
- Von Braun City -

“Oh, please. Is that your version of a power tie? I'm not some nouveau riche investor or middle manager – that's not going to intimidate me,” Maximilian Gates laughed as a man in a nondescript black suit stepped into the rear of his limousine and took a seat across from him. He wasn't talking about the man's funerary look or the mild scowl on his face; what he had noticed as the man stooped to step inside was the conspicuously placed pin on the man's lapel. The head of a cream white unicorn on a charcoal gray roundel. “THE VIST FOUNDATION” embossed across it's shoulder in a small, tasteful font.

“Why am I here?” the man asked, ignoring Gates' patter. The AEUG investor crossed his legs and leaned back in his seat a bit before answering, “Mr. Yamashita, I need information... But this isn't as simple as digging up dirt or “recovering” a politician's computer passwords,”. He reached over and picked up a tumbler of alcohol from his armrest and stopped with the glass nearly at his lips to gesture at his guest. The man with the Vist pin waved away the offer, so Gates took a sip and then continued, “I need to know how and why a particular person came to know certain sensitive information.”

The dark-suited man very nearly smirked at that before responding, “Mr. Gates, you're going to have to be a little more specific than that...”. Gates chuckled, ignoring the fact that his guest hadn't called him 'Sir' Gates, and said, “I think you'll find this one interesting.”

"Can’t believe it’s taking this long! Get me back out there ASAP!" Jacob hollered to the hangar’s mechanics as he continued sipping from his can of light beer. I have a bone to pick with those blue monsters... It seemed the priority was being put on Fritz’s and Sato’s machines which caused him no shortage of anger. There was a chance he’d lose his opportunity to achieve justice. Justice...it’s still justice, isn’t it Clute?

--------

-Buxoro Team-

"Copy your last, Iota Team. But if you don’t mind, we’re staying put. We can hold out for a while longer. And besides..." Elijah paused to take aim at a Rick Dias that was giving the Nunavut some grief, firing off a trio of beam rifle shots in its general direction. "We’re having too much fun here! Over." The sarcasm dripped from his voice, but at least in his intent to hold the line, he was honest.

"August, what the hell did I say? Back up Tim on that Rick Dias! Vlad, fall back to the Buxoro and keep her covered! We need to get some ZOINKS order on this battle line!" He got another pang of intuition in his leg and it wasn’t telling him anything pleasant. If I survive this, I'm transferring to another unit, even if it's regulars! Anywhere but this fleet!

Eddie was dimly aware that Sophie began firing her 240mm cannon at the distant Titan Salamis Kai, and that a Nemo Cannon lacking an arm and a leg was passing them on its way back to the 4th, but was more focused on the incoming fire from its pair of Hizacks, which was coming much closer than the beams starting to spew from the ship or the handful of rockets and beams that had zipped by from various spots in the Titan formation.

Juking around to avoid the bursts of machine gun tracers, he aimed at the slightly more distant Hizack that seemed to be aiming at him, and fired three shots from his beam rifle, while simultaneously having the Rick Dias draw a beam pistol with its left hand.

================================================================

-New Yark Team-

Hard AE barely brought his shield up in time as one of the Hizacks unloaded 120mm shells seemingly everywhere. The Nemo shuddered slightly as the shield absorbed the impact, with a small but notable lower part of the shield being blown away by a pair of hits.

Ramon grumbled to himself and pressed in again, aiming at the nearest Hizack and resumed firing, sending four more shots at the Titan MS, the last of which prompted a warning light to flash on his console: His beam rifle was running low on energy.

Coming up behind Ramon, mumbling curses to himself, Bort had a different concern as a group of Titans passing by fired several rockets in the area, which passed painfully close to his Nemo Cannon. He spun the machine around, trying to track them and return fire, but they were already heading elsewhere.

The whole encounter had only served to hold him up. Turning back towards Ramon and accelerating, he tried to rejoin his teammate, so they could get the hell out and let the Dervish teams handle the push…

Faisal’s Hizack struggled to adjust to its lost foot as the Nemo resumed pressing in, beam rifle firing. One beam connected with the Hizack’s head, causing a number of screens to go blank as the suit shuddered violently.

“Just die already!” Faisal grunted, feeling pain of not-quite-healed wounds, firing at the oncoming Nemo even as his targeting computer tried to adjust to backup sensors. His machine gun let loose another seven rounds before it stopped firing, and amidst the various red damage reports the Lieutenant spotted the low ammo indicator. Tossing the empty rifle aside, Faisal drew his beam saber and reluctantly started to advance toward the Nemo.

Further back, Babineaux saw that her shots didn’t hit, as the Rick Dias team continued to move about and began to open fire, one sending a trio of beams towards her. None of the shots connected, but one passed close enough to the left leg of the Hizack to cause some microscopic Minovsky damage, which caused a warning to flash on her console and immediately worry her about how severe it might have been.

But it was fire from one of the other Rick Dias that caused even more concerns as a pair of flashes occurred behind her. The Nunavut had been hit again, with the prow of the ship being almost totally gone or engulfed in flames. In the split second she watched, several small explosions occurred in that area, probably missiles cooking off, but the rest of the ship remained intact.

And in the fight. The main guns once again opened fire, sending beams out toward both the distant Rick Dias team and the nearer pair of Nemos, while at least one of the anti-air secondary guns joined in against the latter with a more consistent stream of fire.

================================================================

-Gamma Team-

Where are they?

Nick slowed and scanned the area towards the Kirov, the center of Echo’s formation, but there were no MS in that area, aside from an inconsequential team of Hizacks that IFF said were nobodies from the Orinoco. He resumed his previous speed and continued on, aiming to pass between the Kalinin and Buxoro.

His radio crackled a mixture of Faraday and Minovsky interference. “Lieutenant, what's our plan here? Are we assisting another unit?”

Nick almost responded, but didn’t. Instead, he scanned off to his right, spotting what looked to be several Titan teams advancing into combat.

“Hmm…” Escaped through clenched teeth. They had to be in there. Somewhere. Plenty of units. Combat on all sides. There was no other logical place for the bastard to be. It was almost perfect.

Nick banked his X-2 hard, passing near the Kalinin as the ship ceased firing at something, his attention focused entirely on his sensors as he tried to determine which team was which.

================================================================

-The Luzon-
-Bridge-

“Ready to fire, sir.”

Esfahani glanced over at a sensor screen that was almost entirely static, then turned to the gunnery officer. “Do your best…” He said solemnly.

The young man took a deep breath and nodded. They were trying to engage the incoming Gaza-C group, but their own team was in the middle of a dog fight directly in front of them. Their initial timing was good, as for a moment there were no Luzon suits in front of them. The ship’s twin barrel main guns opened fire and a barrage of eight missiles leaped out. They got lucky as one Rick Dias swept into the area, a beam slicing a leg off the machine, and reached out into the rapidly approaching Gaza group, followed by several flashes, at least one of which was a mobile suit explosion.

Esfahani was about to give his instructions for the next barrage when the space in front of them turned bright yellow as the Gaza formation opened fire, both on the Luzon and the engaged MS in front of them. The fire was inaccurate, but consistent. Esfahani saw the damaged Rick Dias from before take several hits from behind and explode, and a moment later, Vinheiras Hizack Custom did the same from even more hits.

Several beams hit the forward section of the Luzon, and Esfahani winced as three beams pierced the hangar area of the ship with bright explosions. The gunners on the ship took it upon themselves to respond, with both the main guns and missiles resuming fire haphazardly, but the Gaza formation had begun to disperse. About half of them were racing in as mobile armors, and almost instantly they were being engaged by the Luzon and Rick Dias teams.

Esfahani floated past the gunnery officer, “Support our team when you can, but just keep those bastards away from us as much as possible!” He ordered as the ship shook from another beam hit somewhere, floating over to the communications tech, “Inform Kirov we’re being hit again, then give me damage reports.”

The young man had gone totally pale, “Sir, Eye-Zack has more incoming, similar angle as that Gaza unit.”

The Lieutenant Commander glanced at the nearby sensor station, which was still useless, and then once again raised his binoculars. Aside from seeing one of the nearby Rick Dias take minor damage as it destroyed a Gaza-C, in the distance, he spotting more units moving around, only this time, with the telltale lights of beam fire that gave it away that this group may have friendlies among it. He turned back and leaned over the comm tech’s shoulder. “Fine, now send that message and get those damage reports.”

They pressed in, with Tuzenbach firing a couple of shots that didn’t seem to hit, but did cause the AEUG team to start shifting its angle in the way Ball wanted them to, which gave him an idea.

“Open fire to the left side of the AEUG team, they should keep moving where we want them to avoid our fire,” He ordered and quickly let loose an intentionally ill-aimed vertical line of seven shots that likely wouldn’t hit any of the AEUG group, but they’d have to move closer to the Axis lines as Ball intended to reduce the risk.

And sure enough, the AEUG team started doing just that, and responded with a handful of beams at the Bindra group. Ball fired again, sending one shot somewhat directly at the AEUG team, and then another three increasingly behind them.

In the distance, beyond their target team, Ball saw the distinctive flashes as the Peoron team began engaging the other team of Nemos.

================================================================

-Trammel Team-

“What’s it carrying?” Emmers stammered, shifting in the formation and firing a couple of shots at the retreating MS

“Don’t worry about that thing, it’s pulling back, but those others aren’t!” Kohlhausen ordered, in an effort to calm both his team and himself. He had no idea what kind of Titan suit had a weapon like that, but there was a line of four Hizacks ahead of them that wasn’t pulling back. Kohlhausen centered his sights between the middle pair and then squeezed the trigger, wiggling his sights across the formation as he sent eight beams in there general direction.

At least a few of his team seemed to get the idea, as another dozen badly aimed shots flashed out towards the Titan group.

Capt. Abbey finished off a packet of coffee and closed the visor of his helmet. The Argama was finally on the scene and making her presence felt, but the Titans and Axis had enough force present at Gryps in the form of sheer numbers that it was hard to tell a difference in the fighting going on near the 4th. Carl squinted at a group of enemy ships in the far distance, but couldn't tell where they were headed based on their orientation. He was about to ask Filmore for long range data on them when Jane spoke up from the comm station.

“Captain,” she said, her voice transmitting softly through the speakers at his ears, “the Oasis is confirming that the Rapa Nui is dead in the water... They're evaluating whether to pull closer to the colony laser.”

Abbey hissed a curse and turned to look towards the Oasis unit's zone of control, but his eye was drawn back in the direction of the closest Titans ships by a massed volley of fire. While the ships on all three sides of the battle were taking potshots at one another from extreme distances, occasionally it was possible for a keen eyed old-timer to notice a difference. This wall of mega-particle fire was different.

“Brace for impact!” he called out, grasping the closest zero-g handle at the bridge windows. From his time on the line during the last war he could tell this volley was on target whether by blind chance or a temporary dip in the density of M-particles. The bridge crew leaned into their stations and assumed a position they normally didn't have time to take as flashes of deadly energy began to stream past the ship and into the formation around them.

One of the shots clipped the starboard side of the main hull, sending a shudder through the whole ship but mercifully doing only superficial damage. A pair of breach alarms began to sing, adding their noise to the cacophony.

- The New Yark -
- Bridge -

“Gah!”

Capt. Guanche helped steady his helmsman, who had been thrown back from his console by the force of impact. The barrage had been aimed at his ship more than any other because of their position at the front of the 4th, and as the captain raised his gaze back to the windows it dawned on him how well-aimed the shots had been.

What appeared to be a direct hit to the ship's front hangar section was spewing hazy smoke and other gaseous debris into space, and a large crack ran down one of the center window panels on the bridge. He glided to the window and went about closing the shutter, and before the armored panels slid down far enough to temporarily block his vision he could see a ragged hole blown into the bow and part of the fore flight deck.